Microsoft Making Strong Password Generator Default

[Rogerdodger]

I had to reset my computer, and all of my saved passwords were deleted. No problem, I remembered most of them, and also had them written down. So I go to this site, and the drop down comes in the upper right, something about password, and I look at it, and the password disappears in a half second. 

What was that? I didn't know. Probably nothing.

The next time I come here, my password doesn't work. Why? Because that thing that dropped down was the Microsoft Strong Password Generator. It doesn't generate PassWORDS. It generates PassGIBBERISH like "QrDXV737Lgh3$g&cs@jk." So my new password it gave me for here was now like that, and I didn't even know it.

It seems that a reset causes the SPG to default to making a mess of user's passwords. I bet many people are now locked out of many of their favorite sites by it having changed their password without their permission. I don't need a strong password, I need a password that I can remember. Generally, I will think of a phrase in  日本語 (Japanese) and then spell it in Romaji (phonetic English characters.)

It took me two hours to analyze the problem and solve it by turning off the SPG. A big part of the problem was that Microsoft Support is useless. Nothing about it on YouTube. Finally the big breakthrough came when I was able to follow the Settings and More> prompt by finding it off the bottom of the screen, needing to be scrolled down to.

[Sigurð Stormhand]

You're saying that when you registered on the site Microsoft Edge created a "strong password" for you and then didn't save it to auto-fill.

This is pretty much normal behaviour in both Chrome and Edge and has been for several years unless you specifically tell it not fill the form with a "strong password".

[Arthmoor]

If that's what you're saying that's also standard fare for Firefox too. It'll suggest one, but won't autofill it unless you ask it to. It certainly cannot then change the password for you on the site because the IPS package simply doesn't work that way.

[Uncus]

8 hours ago, Rogerdodger said:

I had to reset my computer, and all of my saved passwords were deleted. No problem, I remembered most of them, and also had them written down. So I go to this site, and the drop down comes in the upper right, something about password, and I look at it, and the password disappears in a half second. 

What was that? I didn't know. Probably nothing.

The next time I come here, my password doesn't work. Why? Because that thing that dropped down was the Microsoft Strong Password Generator. It doesn't generate PassWORDS. It generates PassGIBBERISH like "QrDXV737Lgh3$g&cs@jk." So my new password it gave me for here was now like that, and I didn't even know it.

It seems that a reset causes the SPG to default to making a mess of user's passwords. I bet many people are now locked out of many of their favorite sites by it having changed their password without their permission. I don't need a strong password, I need a password that I can remember. Generally, I will think of a phrase in  日本語 (Japanese) and then spell it in Romaji (phonetic English characters.)

It took me two hours to analyze the problem and solve it by turning off the SPG. A big part of the problem was that Microsoft Support is useless. Nothing about it on YouTube. Finally the big breakthrough came when I was able to follow the Settings and More> prompt by finding it off the bottom of the screen, needing to be scrolled down to.

I'm fairly sure it's the same with fire wall permissions as well if you are using defender. It used to ask if I wanted to block or not but since the recent updates, I have not seen that option anymore.

[tigerseptim]

This is the sort of crap that drove me away from Windows. M$ doesn't know or respect the difference between "People may benefit from this" and "Everyone must adopt this, right now." That said, I use Firefox and let it generate passwords.

[Sigurð Stormhand]

There's a fair argument that those who know how will turn it off, whereas those who don't know need it on by default.